


A Grave Mistake

by lena-in-a-red-dress (CSIGurlie07)



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, past-gravecorp, pre-agentcorp, references to offscreen rape/assault
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:40:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23986192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CSIGurlie07/pseuds/lena-in-a-red-dress
Summary: It's only when Mercy Graves escapes with the dispersal device in hand that Alex puts the pieces together. (a 4x04 ficlet)
Relationships: Alex Danvers/Lena Luthor, Mercy Graves/Lena Luthor
Kudos: 110





	A Grave Mistake

**Author's Note:**

> CONTENT WARNING: implied past abuse, references to/implied off-screen rape/assault

Alex really should have put it together from the way Lena smiled at Alex’s announcement of her marriage.

At the time, she’s too high on cloud nine to notice that those ruby lips curl in the grin of a shared victory.

“I can ‘ardly belief it,” Alex tells her, three beers into a game night that doesn’t happen because Kara doesn’t show. “Didjou know Maggie almost didn’t want me? Said we were in different places. She didn’t– didn’t wanna be the first for a baby gay.”

Lena looks at her with bemusement. She’s been nursing her single glass of wine all night. She looks like she’s waiting for something.

Oh. Right.

Kara.

“She’s my first love,” Alex continues, pushing thoughts of her absent sister from her mind. “My only love. I’m gonna marry her so hard.”

There Lena’s lips go curling again, spreading in a knowing smile. “She’s a lucky woman. I’m happy for you, Agent Danvers.”

“Al’x.” Alex points at her with the same hand holding her beer. “S’Alex for anyone who helps save the world.”

When a sudden heat blooms in her chest at Lena’s resulting flush, Alex blames it on the beer.

“Congratulations, _Alex.”_

* * *

She also should have put it together when Lena checked on her following the aborted engagement. She and Lena once again find themselves across the table from each other– this time, they’re simply early to their bar of choice rather than enduring Kara’s absence.

“How are you doing, really?” Lena asks gently. Her head tilts. “I’ve wanted to check in with you after everything with Maggie, but we haven’t really had a moment alone.”

No, they haven’t. Alex is grateful for the catastrophes that have kept her busy, giving the wounds in her heart time to heal. Now, the mention of Maggie only throbs instead of stabs. She can only hope that the time when she can look back in fondness only comes swiftly.

“I’m okay, thanks.” Alex twists her beer bottle on its paper coaster. “I still feel a little stupid though, you know? I was so quick to get to my happy ending, I didn’t give us a chance to discuss what we actually wanted.”

Lena regards her with a smile. “Well, if you’re an idiot, you’re not the only one.”

Alex finds it hard to believe that Lena could have ever been so foolish.

“Maggie said yes,” Lena elaborates. “She was just as eager for the happily ever after as you were. And she thought she found it in you. You were in the same place for a while, despite her initial misgivings. That means something.”

Accepting the truth of Lena’s words with a nod, Alex raises her beers in somber cheer. “I’ll drink to that.”

* * *

And she really should have figured it out when Kara is poisoned, and she has to explain to Lena how the woman who broke into L-Corp escaped DEO custody with her brother.

“They took the dispersal device with them,” she delivers, feeling the burden of responsibility press heavier on her shoulder when green eyes narrow into a gaze of pure ice.

 _“My_ dispersal device?”

Alex nods.

“And you were planning on sharing this information when?”

“She just did,” Brainy points out unhelpfully. “I believe her volume was sufficient–”

“Her volume is fine,” Lena snaps. “It’s communication that’s her problem!”

Bristling, Alex straightens. “I don’t answer to you–”

“Nor I to you, but I’m still expected to notify you of any developments concerning Supergirl– an arrangement I believed applied to devices your organization confiscates from my possession!”

Lena turns on her heel and stalks out of the room before Alex can respond. Alex quickly follows, with an order for Brainy to stay put with Kara. 

“Hey!” Alex grabs for Lena’s elbow, only for it to wrench out of her grip. 

“Don’t touch me–”

“Okay! Okay.” Alex backs off, lifting her hands in surrender. “Look, I’m sorry. But just wait a second, all right?”

Lena obeys, but looks like she’s about to crawl out of her skin.

“We only discovered the device was missing after the irradiation occurred,” Alex explains.

“Oh, that makes me feel much better, thank you–”

“It’s not the device, is it?”

Lena freezes. It’s all the confirmation Alex needs.

“Why has Mercy Graves crawled under your skin?”

“I don’t appreciate people breaking into my building and attacking my employees. As a Director, I’d assume you felt the same way, but your lack of concern regarding your breach of security suggests otherwise.”

“I have more things to worry about than cleaning up L-Corp’s messes–”

“No, Alex, this is YOUR mess. You chose to incarcerate her here, in the same building as her brother. And she broke out on your watch. This has nothing to do with L-Corp.”

As much as it pains her to say it, Alex can’t find fault in her logic. Her first few months as director haven’t been as polished as she’d prefer, and now her sister was paying the price.

“You better find her, Director, or she will burn your entire organization to the ground.”

* * *

She only starts to put it together when Mercy breaks back into the DEO. This time, she has her brother and Jensen in tow.

They make off with the exoskeleton of Alex’s kryptosuit… and Lena.

Alex watches the abduction after the fact on the security tapes. In a set of borrowed DEO blacks, Lena all but collides with them near the secure vaults, and nearly holds her own against Mercy and Otto until a third, masked figure in full body armor cold cocks her from behind.

No one at the DEO has to wonder who they stole the kryptosuit for.

The smug grin Mercy gives the camera before striding casually out of frame clicks another small piece into place in Alex’s brain.

Lena saves herself, really. She’d gone to the vault to retrieve a tracker from inventory– one she’d intended to graft into Supergirl’s biosuit. Instead it goes with her, and activates within the day.

They find her alive but unconscious in a warehouse with a sedative dart still lodged in her chest. She rouses, foggily, when Alex pats her cheek, but can’t hold her head up or her eyes open. They put her in the next medbay over from Supergirl to sleep it off, and when she finally wakes, almost two days later, Alex can’t keep her long enough to do a full examination.

Even then, the final piece only clicks into place when Vasquez pulls her aside over a day later and surrenders to her an expensive black bra in a sealed evidence bag.

“I didn’t think it pertinent to our search efforts, ma’am,” Vasquez utters, tone heavy with meaning.

Alex accepts the bag, swallowing thickly. “Thank you, Vasquez.”

She waits until Kara is stable before risking a trip beyond the walls of the DEO. She’s never been to the Baldwin, but the doorman lets her up after hearing only her name. She knocks on Lena’s door with a bottle of wine in hand.

When it opens, she’s greeted with the sight of Lena in a silk kimono and red-rimmed eyes.

“Alex… Is anything wrong?”

Lena’s tug to close the neck of her kimono doesn’t quite hide the bruises that have been suckled into pale skin, or the red angry welts of biting teeth. Alex’s blood boils at the sight, even though she’s come suspecting the worst.

She forces a smile before displaying her peace offering. “Only if you’ve suddenly run out of glasses.”

Devoid of their usual lipstick, pink lips lift into a tired smile. “Never.”

She opens the door a little wider, and Alex enters with a quick study of the space around her. Open, spacious, light… What some might call sparsely furnished, Alex registers as no clutter for an intruder to hide among.

When they’re well into their cups, Alex finally gathers the nerve to speak. She withdraws the evidence bag still tucked into her cargo pocket, and offers it wordlessly to Lena.

Long fingers accept it without a word.

“This came directly from the agent who found it,” Alex explains. “She was… discreet.”

Lena swallows. “Thank you.”

“Lena…”

Green eyes flash defensively, sliding away. “I’ve been examined. I’m fine.” She sighs softly, and it looks like all of the fight leaves her body in a single breath. “Just some discomfort.”

Silence hangs between them. It’s not just a confirmation of assault– it’s a confirmation of what Alex had seen in Mercy’s smirk on the videotape before she’d sauntered off-screen. Finding another like her doesn’t feel as joyous as it should.

“I didn’t realize you two had history,” Alex says. Lena’s gaze darkens. “I’m sorry, Lena. It feels like you were trying to tell me, but I didn’t–”

Lena cuts her off with a shrug and a wave of her hand. “Don’t, please. It’s fine.”

“No.” Alex rests her glass on her knee. She doesn’t know how to do this, but she’s loathe to let Lena brush it away. “It’s not.”

Silence stretches between them for long moments. Lena is the first to break it, voice low and sticky.

“You told me once that Maggie had concerns about starting a relationship with someone so new,” she says. “That she almost turned you away.”

Maggie may only be a throb of pain now, but the memory of sobbing into Kara’s arms after that brushoff still lances like a hot poker across Alex chest. She nods.

“When you told me that, I actually respected Detective Sawyer a little more. You see, Mercy–” Lena’s words catch in her throat. She pauses, letting her gaze drift to stare into the depths of her wine glass. “My inexperience was all Mercy wanted from me. My rosy-cheeked enthusiasm for the thrilling unknown meant I didn’t ask any questions. I didn’t have a frame of reference to know what was or wasn’t normal.”

Alex leans forward to comfort the CEO, but stops just shy of contact. She senses boundaries between them still, and doesn’t know which ones she’s allowed to cross. She settles for being near.

“That’s awful…”

“Yeah,” Lena scoffs. “Except at the time, the worst part was that she let me believe we had forever together– right up until the moment she broke my heart to go fuck my brother.”

Alex chokes on her own tongue, and coughs in shock. “No…”

“Mercy gets what she wants. Always.”

Dark eyebrows lift in a shrug, helpless to the truth. Alex takes in the bruises on Lena’s neck and wrists, and knows how true it must be.

“Well, then,” she declares loudly, gesturing with her glass as she gets more comfortable on the couch– still near enough to touch, if Lena needs it. Her tone lightens the mood, just a bit.

“Yeah, I think you win the award for worst ex.”

Lena laughs. At first the sound is bright, if a little dry, but then her expression cracks. Her lips wobble, and her eyes sparkle with sudden tears. Only then does Alex risk looping an arm around Lena’s shoulders. Lena doesn’t lean in quite as far as Kara does, but she does lean. Her body sighs silently at the contact, and she rubs the moisture from her eyes with a pitiful sniff.

“I’m actually a little grateful to her,” Lena admits after a long moment. “If not for her, I would have thrown my heart into the hands of someone who wanted to keep it. I would have lost myself before ever really learning who I am.”

Alex grunts. “That bitch doesn’t get credit for any part of you, Lena.”

“I’m not so sure of that.”

“I am.”

She doesn’t intend to stay the night. She never expected to find an ally quite like Lena Luthor either. But she’s happy for both when the sun rises the next morning to reveal a heavy head on her shoulder and fingers tangled in hers.

Amid the quiet peace, a tiny kernel of shame digs sharply between Alex ribs. She’d shed her doubts about Lena far later than she should have. She wonders, briefly, if putting the pieces together about Lena’s sexuality might have sped the process just that much more. 

Either way, Alex should really trust her sister’s taste in friends more.


End file.
